Greg and I were visiting some friends over New Years, and we all stayed up one night watching the news coverage of Saddam Hussain's execution. We started talking about other important events we've lived through; the phrase, "Do you remember where you were when _____ happened?" came up over and over as we realized we've seen quite a few ground-breakers in our time. Thus, this blog. I started to jot down various headlines starting from about the 80s (Iwas born late 70s), and was astounded at the sheer number of them! Here's what I came up with...and I will admit I looked up a few of the dates to refresh my memory.
Politics/Terrorism:
Gulf War, Iraq War, Somalian crisis
Iran Contra & Oliver North
Rodney Kind beating and riots '91-92
Car bomb hits the World Trade Center '93
Oklahoma City bombing '95
David Koresh and the Branch Davidians '93
Bill Clinton's Sexcapades (Monica Lewinski, Gennifer Flowers) and impeachment
9/11 Terrorist Attacks '01
Saddam Hussain's capture, trial, and execution '07
Murder/Crime
John Lennon murdered '80
Ronald Reagan shot '81
Jeffrey Dahmer '91
Mike Tyson rape conviction '92
Menendez brothers killed their parents '93
OJ Simpson '94
Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur murders '97
Unabomber '96
School shootings: Jonesboro, Columbine
Enron Scandal, Martha Stewart scandal
Deaths
Princess Diana '97
Mother Theresa '97
JFK Jr., Carolyn Bissett Kennedy, Lauren Bissett (plane crash off coast of Martha's Vineyard)
Other small engine plane crashes: Payne Stewart, John Denver
Johnny Cash and June Carter
Christopher Reeve
Natural Disasters, etc.
Mt. St. Helens eruption '80
Space shuttle Challenger explodes after lift-off '86
Exxon Valdez oil spill '89
California Earthquake during the World Series '89
Space shuttle Columbia explodes over Houston '03
Tsunami '04
Katrina, Rita '05
Sports
The Dream Team (basketball legends dominate Olympics)
Kerri Strug lands the vault on a fractured ankle to win Olympic gold for US Gymnastics
Mike Tyson bites off part of Evander Holyfield's ear in fight '97
Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan
Legends: Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Nolan Ryan, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Brett Favre, Joe Montana, Andre Agassi...
Science/Popular Culture
1st Test tube baby
1st heart transplant
1st AIDS patient '82
Clonings, "Dolly" the sheep, '97
Rise of Computers
Rise of Cell Phones
Rise of Reality TV
Y2K
What else do you remember?
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First 386SX/16 MHz computer with 20 megabyte hard drive purchased by the Sittema family for $1,300 in 1992 (it was state of the art).
8 million Mexicans immigrate to the U.S. in 1987 after Reagan's amnesty bill (they were the family members of the ones that were already here illegally). Lessons from history, anyone?
Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1990 and the collapse of international communism a few weeks after Ronald Reagan stood there and ordered Gorbechev to "Tear Down This Wall." Remember when we were the SHIZZLE in Europe?
Destruction of two US African embassies by Al Qaeda in 1998. Clinton lobbed a few cruise missiles at a baby-milk factory in retaliation and then gave a press conference where he solemnly declared that "America has struck back" then opened it up for questions - all they asked him about was Monica Lewinsky.
NATO Air War against Slobodan Milosevic in 1998-1999. Again, remember when we were the SHIZZLE in Europe?
That's just a few...good post Jack!
Thanks, Rich! I actually had the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism on my written list, but must of missed it. Now, while I did expect your comment to be mostly political, I must say I also expected some Sports events!
Here are a few more:
- The Dow Jones tops 4,000 (1995 during my first year in college). It's currently about 12,500.
- Baseball's steroid scandal
- Some European genius decides to give the Nobel Peace Price to career terrorist leader Yasser Arafat. The UN rules.
- "The Catch" (Montana to Dwight Clark to beat the Cowboys in the NFC Championship game, 1982).
- The Arab Oil Embargo, late 70's
- Michael Jackson becomes a sociopathic Caucasion pedophile
- "DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?!?!?" Al Michael's famous line from the Miracle on Ice game in which a bunch of American college kids beat the seasoned pros from the Soviet Union in the 1984 Olympics.
- Michael Jordan shoots 65% from the floor to score 63 points against Boston in a playoff game. The Chiago Bulls won 6 NBA titles with their famous Airborn captain leading the way.
- Emmitt Smith breaks Walter Payton's record to become the NFL's all-time leading rusher.
- Michael Irvin (who I played pool with for an hour at Humperdink's once) gets busted with cocaine and two hookers in some sleazy hotel room.
I could go on for hours...
Thank goodness for your final two categories or I would be really, really depressed at this post. =)
The biggest event since 1980, of course, has been the birth of your younger sister, Rachel. From there it's really all downhill.
globalization, growing democracy and capitalism worldwide, the end of the Cold War, the dot-com boom, the birth and death of major shows like The Cosby Show, Simpsons, Friends, Seinfeld, ER, etc., gay rights, the Euro, Microsoft, the presidential election fiasco of 2000, Pluto gets demoted, apartheid ends in South Africa, genocide in Africa kills millions, the NRA disarms and peace begins in Northern Ireland, the bomb in Bali, tons of new genres of music such as grunge, hip-hop, rap, indie, boy bands, latin, etc., video games (Nintendo, Sega, PlayStation, X-box), DVDs replace VHS, extreme sports, the meth problem in the U.S., popularity of NASCAR, Harry Potter, Selena killed, Hurricane Andrew, Mt. Pinatubo erupts in the Philippines, major advancements in the treatments for cancer, Lance Armstrong, the crusade against smoking, sex education controversies, the rise of Al Qaeda, Prince changes his name to a symbol and then changes it back...
So wow - you're right. We have seen SO much in our lifetime. As Jenn would say, craaaazy.
Doesn't it seem so strange to you that someday your kids will come home and these things (some of them already are) will be in their history textbooks? It blows my mind. I'm curious to see what spin their history teachers put on some of these events. You know, how they will put their views into the whole thing. It just still seems so surreal to me that we are all a part of history. Not just living our lives in our little corner of the world, but we are all a part of history. I just feel to young for all that!
great post!!!
To my siblings: sheesh! My original thoughts for this post were mainly to list the big events we can say we heard on the news. I wasn't really thinking about all the fads and tv shows, etc. We have seen a lot of that, too though!
Sorry for all the fads and stuff, but seriously, sometimes that stuff is as important historically as political and terrorist events.
And anyway, when our kids are watching 'old' shows like Friends on syndicated TV, won't it be weird to say that we watched it when it originally ran??
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